Fighting on top of buildings is totally Badass. Probably because of the risk of falling off. For whatever reason, often resulting from a Chase Scene or an attempted and botched escape (sometimes courtesy of a Climbing Climax), two characters wind up squaring off on a rooftop. Sometimes involves Roof Hopping if it takes place in the middle of a city, but sometimes a single rooftop can be just as badass, since it limits a character's maneuverability.

Of course, if the characters spend all their time in a crowded school or office building, the roof might be the only place that they feel like they have any room to maneuver for a fight. Bonus points if the building has some other reason to be up there, such as a rooftop garden, helipad, or basketball court.

Marvel Comics might be the trope codifier - rooftops are handy for superheroes as they allow a fight in the middle of the city without (too many) civilians getting in the way.

Examples:

Ghost in the Shell Stand-Alone Complex. The Individual Eleven practice a ritualized Mutual Kill on top of a rooftop; it ends with a sword-fight when one of them changes his mind. All of this is caught on tape and makes for a pretty horrifying news report.

In the TV version of Yamada Taro Monogatari (can't vouch for the manga here) Sugiura confronts Taro on the rooftop in an early episode.

In the film X1999, the final battle takes place on the roof of a tall building.

In volume 7 of Parasyte, Goto faces off against the military on the roof of a building. He massacres them.

Naruto's first fight with Sasuke takes place on the roof of the hospital where Sasuke had been staying.

Orochimaru fights Sarutobi on a rooftop. Sarutobi is quite cool with it though, as he makes up the Rooftile Shuriken jutsu during the battle (in the anime).

In One Piece, the entirety of Luffy's fight with Blueno takes place on the roof of the courthouse of Enies Lobby.

Yuugen Kaisha: Near the end of the fourth Incident File ("Lover Come Back to Me") Ayaka gets cornered on the roof of the Hadja's temple. Which culminates in a showdown between her and Mukyo, in one of the most well animated and choreographed sword fights in the series.

Comicbooks

In All Fall Down, Portia trades blows with the Ghoul on a skyscraper after he interrupts her suicide attempt.

Fan Fiction

In The Prayer Warriors, Jerry's last battle with Percy Jackson takes place on top of the church, because he considered it "a goofy site for all of (his) followers to see (his) victory."

In Cosmic Warriors, Tuxedo Mask and Jadeite have their first shown altercation on a roof of what is either a large jewelry store, or a building near one.

Film

The climatic showdown of Internal Affairs pits Chan, an undercover cop, against his longtime foe Lau, a Triad mole in the police department. Their confrontation is on the same rooftop where Chang's handler, Wong, was murdered. This scene is reenacted in the American remake, The Departed.

If you don't know where the climax to King Kong happened, this troper doesn't know what to say to you

Batman (1989). Near the beginning the title character confronts and fights two robbers on the roof of a building where they're counting their ill-gotten gains.

Scotland PA ends with a fight between McBeth and Lt McDuff on the roof of a fast food restaurant.

In Max Payne, the climax where Max confronts the guy who killed his wife occurs on a hele-pad on top of the Aesir Pharmaceuticals high-rise building.

In the film version of Ichi the Killer, the final confrontation takes place on the roof of the Yakuza apartment building.

The 1920 silent movie The Golem features a showdown between the Golem and Knight Florian on top of the Rabbi's observatory tower.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Raphael heads for the roof after a fight with Leonardo. Suddenly, a bunch of Foot ninjas attack him. After their numbers grow, they manage to overtake him and throw him into April's apartment.

Literature

Lampshaded heavily in all of Robert Rankin's books that feature Lazlo Woodbine, Private Detective. Lazlo only works four locations: his office, a bar, a back alley, and a rooftop for the final denouement with the villain.

In Animorphs, Ax chases Visser Three onto a rooftop to confront him for a one-on-one battle.

Forms part of the climax in "Moon Over Soho" and lets our hero throw a chimney stack at the Big Bad.

Occurs again at the end of "Broken Homes" where the returning Big Bad engineers one of these between him and Peter, then blows the building up underneath them.

The final controntation in Night Watch (the book and the movie) happens on a rooftop. The movie has Anton fight with Zabulon with a halogen lamp (Zabulon is wielding a sword he has just pulled out of his spine). In the book, Zabulon is about to kill Anton with a powerful spell after Anton has a revelation about Svetlana but is stopped.

In the movie, the entire fight is choreographed by Zabulon to end up with Anton nearly killing Yegor by accident, resulting in the latter becoming a Dark Other.

In Shakugan no Shana, the final confrontation between Yuji, Shana and Friagne happens on the roof of an abandoned department store.

At the end of Fancy Apartments, the heroes are directed by the main villian to the roof for the final confrontation.

Live-Action TV

Happens in a first season episode of Battlestar Galactica where Six beats Sharon up on top of a building.

CSI NY Mac and Clay Dobson in one episode of a several ep arc in season 3. Mac had busted a dirty cop and Dobson was released because of the cop's testimony being tossed out. He killed another person, though, and Mac chased him down, cornering him on the rooftop. Dobson waited to be cuffed, then jumped off the roof in an attempt to frame Mac for police brutality, though it failed.

Season 3 of Dexter featured a rooftop confrontation between Miguel and Dexter towards the climax of the season. It was only a confrontation, not really a fight... but it was a pretty awesome scene anyway.

Although no actual physical fighting occurs, in Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty have a final confrontation on the roof of St. Bart's in "The Reichenbach Fall."

In Soap Mary's first husband confronts Burt and tries to kill him on top of a building in mid-construction, so he can take over the constructing business.

Discussed in an early episode of Due South, Huey and Louis are talking trash with Ray Vecchio, and they make tentative plans to duke it out on the roof of the precinct later.

Music

"Oi! To The World", originally by the Vandals and later covered by No Doubt, is about a rooftop battle between a Middle Eastern punk and a skinhead on Christmas Day. The song ends with the punk saving the skin's life in the spirit of the season.

Pinball

After correctly identifying the killer in WHO dunnit, the player must take a taxi to Tony's Palace, then confront the culprit on the hotel rooftop and catch him before time runs out.

One of the boss fights in Red Steel 2 ends with Cutscene Power to the Max for both the boss and the protagonist. The boss manage to knock the hero all the way onto a roof and then they proceed to fight up there until the hero breaks the sword in half and pushes him off the building...apparently jumping up four stories is fine, but not falling down them.

Homestuck: No matter what the timeline, Dave Strider has a thing for these. In Act I, he was throwing down with his brother over a pair of Sburb beta discs; his Alpha timeline version in Act VI makes his last appearance shredding the evil juggalo presidents in a fight on top of the White House.

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